Electroacupuncture in the Contralesional Hemisphere Improves Neurological Function Involving GABA in Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury Rats

This study investigated the effect and mechanism of electroacupuncture (EA) on the contralesional hemisphere in rats with ischemic stroke. EA of 2 Hz was applied on the contralesionally Luoque (BL8) and Tongtian (BL7) acupoints of the scalp to investigate the neurological status and mechanism in ischemia-reperfusion injury rats. The differences in the neurological deficit score and Rotarod test time between days 3 and 15 after reperfusion were significantly lower in the sham group (0.00 (-1.00, 0.00) and 3.53 (-0.39, 7.48) second, respectively) than in the EA group (-4.00 (-4.00, -3.00) and 44.80 (41.69, 54.13) second, respectively, both p<0.001). The ratio of infarction volume was 0.19 +/- 0.04 in the sham group greater than 0.07 +/- 0.04 in the EA group (p<0.001). On day 15, in the cerebral cortex of the lesioned hemisphere, the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-A/actin ratio in the normal group (1.11 +/- 0.36) was higher than that in the sham group (0.38 +/- 0.07, p<0.05) and similar to that in the EA group (0.69 +/- 0.18, p>0.05); the difference between the EA and sham groups was significant (p<0.05). EA of 2 Hz on the BL8 and BL7 acupoints on the contralesional scalp can improve motor function and also can reduce infarction volume, and this effect of EA, and that GABA-A, plays at least a partial role in ischemia-reperfusion injury rats.